Medium Pet Birds

Medium birds, in my view, is anything bigger than a budgie, but smaller than a galah. Your definition may be different.

What kind of medium birds do we have in NZ?

From what I have seen on various social media groups and what my customers tell me, the most common pet birds in NZ are cockatiels and conures. There are many species of conures but the most common ones are maroon-bellied, green-cheeked, and occasionally we see people with sun conures, which are a bit bigger. I am not sure I could tell a maroon-bellied from a green-cheeked apart so I wonder if many people use them interchangeably. Funnily enough, one is from Brazil but the other is from Argentina, which I guess are close but not the same. Research tells us that they're conspecific - this means they can interbreed, so essentially very close in species. I wonder how many cross-bred ones there are now.

Cockatiels are small cockatoos! They come from Australia, and apparently there are 22 colour mutations! Cockatiels are more sexually dimorphic than some other birds, which means you can sometimes tell whether one is male or female by their colouring.

I've also seen for sale on Trade Me or customers have told me they have:

• Red-rumped parrots
• Turquoise parrots
• Princess parrots
• Bourke's parrots
• Quakers (aka Monk parrots)
• Australian King parrots

Lorikeets are also medium birds, but I have a separate article on them.

Some people also keep doves, pigeons, and mynas, which are also medium, but not parrots.

Medium bird diet requirements

There are no specific dietary requirements for medium birds other than we know they should not be fed only seed. They should be given a good pellet, fruit/vegetables for extra variety and foraging opportunities, and seeds can be used for training or treats. Non-parrot birds, such as mynas, may also benefit from insectivore foods, while doves and pigeons may need a more specific pellet or grain mix. To be effective, high quality pellets need to comprise at least 80% of the diet.

Some research has shown that cockatiels are 'insensitive to sugar' so they won't really enjoy sweet fruit like other birds might, but they do seem to like apples, perhaps for the texture. Dark leafy vegetables and perhaps things like corn may be more their preference.

Parrot Treats family

Smudge was a maroon-bellied conure I had. I bought him on Trade Me, the person who was selling him had just got an Indian Ring Neck and put them in the same cage and they did not get along, so she wanted to move Smudge to someone else. 

Smudge was such a loving bird. Of all the birds I've had, I truly feel like he's the only one who actually cared about me. He would snuggle up in my hair and look excited when I'd come home. He was a little scaredy birb - loud noises, sudden movements, foreign objects would all frighten him and he'd go for a big fly until he ran out of puff. I really miss him. 

I also had two ring necks for a very short time.

Smudge really liked hiding in things, sometimes even holding my hand over his head like a small cave made him relax and settle in. He also really liked a good scratch.